


From the Other Side of the Door

by talefeathers



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Angst, Hiding Medical Issues, M/M, Medical Conditions, Overheard conversation, feat. The U.S.'s Garbage Healthcare Expenses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2019-07-10 16:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15953369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talefeathers/pseuds/talefeathers
Summary: Ronan hears a conversation he wasn't supposed to hear.





	From the Other Side of the Door

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "Things you said that I wasn't meant to hear" for Pynch.

“Of course I haven’t told him.”

Ronan froze just outside the door to Adam’s dorm room, his fist raised for a knock that wouldn’t fall.

“Because I don’t want him to worry about it,” Adam continued from the other side of the door. “He doesn’t need to worry about it. It’s my problem, and I’m taking care of it.”

Adam was silent for a moment, and Ronan gathered that since he couldn’t hear a second voice his boyfriend must be on the phone. Either that or he was talking to himself, which wouldn’t have rated among even the top ten strangest things Adam had done in the last four years. When he spoke again, it was in a tone that Ronan knew well.

“I don’t _need_ any help,” he said, voice glinting like steel. “I shouldn’t have even said anything, I just – forget it.”

Adam went quiet again, for so long that Ronan thought he might have hung up. 

“Yeah,” he said finally, quietly. “I know. No, _I’m_ sorry. I just – you know.”

He sighed heavily. Ronan shifted carefully from one foot to the other, inching his ear closer to the door.

“I know. I know. I’m going to. I know.” A dry chuckle. “Sure. Hey, um. Thank you.”

Another sigh, followed by the clatter of Adam dropping his phone onto his bedside table. Ronan put sixty seconds between himself and that sound before finally letting himself knock. Adam pulled the door open with a tired smile.

What followed was about fifteen minutes of tense small talk; Adam tense because he had something to say and Ronan tense because he knew it. Finally, sitting on the bed with his head resting on Ronan’s shoulder and his eyes resolutely focused on his own knees, Adam said, “Uh, so. Just to kind of let you know, I might have to um. Get a second job.”

In an organic situation, Ronan might have crowed indignance: _The fuck? Why?_ Now he just said “Oh yeah?” and waited for the other shoe to drop.

“Yeah, I’m gonna have some.” Adam swallowed before continuing. “Medical bills.”

What followed for Ronan was a sense of narrowing – of the room tunnelling claustrophobically around him, of his esophagus shrinking so that air seemed barely able to pass through.

“What?” he asked with half his voice.

“I – I’m sorry, I should’ve told you soo–”

“No, I mean _what?_ ” Ronan insisted. “Like, _what_ is it, _what_ medical bills, _what_ are you –?”

“Heart surgery,” Adam said. He sounded calm again, but his face was white. “Open-heart surgery.”

Ronan closed his eyes when the room only continued to tighten.

“Shit,” he said. He grasped for any comfort he could give, settling lamely on “I mean, they always said I was a heartbreaker, but.”

Adam laughed at that. Ronan felt like vomiting.

“It was me who broke it,” Adam assured him, taking one of Ronan’s hands and squeezing it. “And it’s me who’ll fix it. I don’t want you to worry. I just wanted you to know.”

Ronan nodded, biting back a flood of Gansey-isms that had spilled into his mouth. _He almost didn’t tell me,_ he thought, his stomach churning again. _He almost didn’t tell me about this._

“Sure,” he said, mouth dry. He sounded like an idiot, but it was all he could say without fucking up. Without fretting, without swearing, without boiling this up into a fight he didn’t want to have, it was all he had left. “Sure.”


End file.
